Legacy of Soul
by NineStoicCrayolas
Summary: There are days where Sakura can feel the link more strongly than others. Days when, she looks up at the sky and thinks why did I have to be the one?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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Sakura knows, the moment she turns two, that she is not normal.

There are flashes of memories she's never lived in her mind, things she's tasted on her tongue yet _not_ , there are things she has done that haven't been done with _her_ hands. Her mother is not her mother, her father is not her father, her friends are not her friends.

She is something that has existed, hasn't existed and yet exists now at the same time.

But, as she toddles towards her mother, frowning at the cooing and the way her father (or is it her _father_? Sakura isn't really sure who is who at the moment) quietly cheering her on behind her, she thinks that she really shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

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Another flash-fic cos they're my guilty pleasure. Enjoy! Hope you all like it :)


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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She feels the thrum sometimes.

The little kernels of power that echo through the bond, threatening to choke her and makes the blood thunder in her veins. It is all-consuming, all-knowing and there are days where she sits, frozen, at the window, her nails clawing at her dainty neck. It beats inside of her, ready to call her when they need.

 _She has always been theirs._

They are so close she wants to _drown_ in them.

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	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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" _Hello."_

" _Hi."_

" _Greetings."_

The ghosts of the past have always spoken to her.

She fingers what should have been a thick, raised line.

She had died choking on the metal of a blade.

Flashes of the same spirit and different eyes are what Sakura's dreams are composed of. Blue, green, yellow, brown eyes. Thick lashes, thin lashes, dark, light, red, she does not know. Her mouth has been unique, proportional, misaligned—everything and nothing at the same time—and as she looks at her own, dainty rosebud mouth she wonders how many times has she looked at herself through different eyes.

"I am the same." Sakura tells herself.

Her eyes are green this time.

Like they were all those millennia ago.

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	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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Haruno Mebuki knows that Sakura is strange when she turns five and stares at her with those solemn green eyes and serious mouth.

Her little baby has never smiled, never truly given a free laugh.

Mebuki had been worried for years, quietly confiding in Kizashi who tried in vain to soothe her worries away. He never really managed to convince himself either.

So when little Sakura asks her if she's ever had another life, Mebuki startles.

"No." Mebuki says slowly. Her daughter's green eyes seem to focus on something beyond her and then sharpen right back to her. "No, Sakura-chan, I haven't—or at least, none that I remember."

Sakura nods a little before a frown over takes her cherub face. "Do you know a woman called Haruhi Sagisō?"

Mebuki's mouth falls open a little at the name of one of the most powerful women in shinobi history. Haruhi was renowned for her kindness, stealth, iron grip and her near-marriage to Uchiha Madara.

"She—she was," Mebuki straightens the hem of her apron and clasps her hands behind her back tightly so Sakura doesn't see them trembling. "Sagisō-sama was supposed to be the bride of Uchiha Madara, but she died in an unfortunate scuffle that the Senju had instigated, right on the border of what we now call Konoha. It was after the peace was formed between the clans and it is believed that she was also a founding member of what could have been Konoha's first dual-leadership."

Her daughter—the daughter who hasn't even really been to the library and doesn't like meeting new people (so _how_ can she even _know_ the name Haruhi Sagisō?)—nods and then shuffles away, twirling a strand of curls around her slim fingers.

Mebuki just watches her leave, biting her lip in anxiety.

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	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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The ghosts pester her and there are days where she looks at herself and wonders where her blue eyes are and her thick, curling black locks. She remembers her favorites. The ghosts where she was a daimyo's daughter, the ones where she was a farmer, the ones where she was a prostitute.

" _We are the same."_ This is what they whisper through her lips, threaded into her skin. _"You are always."_

Haruhi Sagisō is one of her favorites.

The woman with the long pale hair and the clear blue green eyes is gentle and kind, yet has a quiet sort of strength that many cannot cross. Sakura loves dreaming about Sagisō because she gets to feel the Other souls' too.

Sakura feels the bond begin to thrum when she thinks of the Others.

She remembers their eyes, one always sparkling with joy and the other, quiet, refined… _angry._ Their eyes have always been the same—one bleeding in red, blood and war, the other blue like rivers and life and atonement.

They have always been yin and yang, push and pull and she—she is the balance.

She remembers their touch, how their hands were calloused, at times smooth when they brushed over her skin. She remembers the ghosts that moan and cry and sob and scream.

 _They have only ever led to her downfall._

The last time she died with a metal blade at her neck and blue eyes frenzied with raging anger.

Red is the last thing she sees before she shuts her eyes to sleep.

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	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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Sometimes, there are those who can feel her, thrumming in the darkness. They feel the pull of the line around their throats, the way the little, picturesque house on the edge of the civilian district feels more appealing than others, how sometimes, they catch a glimpse of red-or is it pink?-behind closed doors and drawn curtains.

A little blonde boy doesn't always understand much, but he _knows_...that house...whatever (whoever, a little voice whispers in his mind) is inside, is special.

The heir of the Uchiha Clan tilts his head curiously when his younger brother scampers along the brick road, eager to pass by an unseen route-one that has nothing particularly special on it.

The bond is alive, pulling and tugging and pushing.

She feels it, low in her stomach, throbbing under her skin.

They are hers and they are _alive._

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	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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Sakura leaves the house one morning, much to the shock of her parents, a stern look on her face, her mouth drawn in a tight line.

Something in her calls to her as she steps outside for the first time she was...born ( _reborn, reborn, reborn)_ and she knows, knows like the back of her many, different hands that—

She has been here before, a long, long time ago.

A memory itches the back of her mind and she loses herself in it, slowing to a stop near a park bench.

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	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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It starts like any other of her dreams—except, except, except—this is _not_ a dream and a part of her _screams_ because it means—she's real, she's real, she's _real_ and she is Sakura not always _Sakura_ and sometimes both.

They are there, standing in front of her.

" _Hello,"_ The first Brother whispers. _"So you are here once again?"_

"Of course," a voice—her voice?—murmurs. It feels natural to speak to them, almost like...coming home.

The other one smiles. His blue eyes, like ice and wind and _love_ call out to her. _"We have waited a long, long time for your return."_

"Me too."

Tears drip down her face and hit the collar of her shirt.

"I've—I've _missed you."_

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	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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Seeing her—seeing her is like seeing their heart.

His brother, his gentle, loving—and sometimes _ruthless—_ brother lurches forward, as if unable to stop himself—and his fingers brush her cheek, rounded by childhood once again.

The heat is coiling in his chest, the painful stutter of half-breaths beginning once anew, because, because, because— _because—_ she is the same as she was, all those millennia ago.

Pink hair.

He knows, under those dark, long lashes, there rests green, green eyes.

He begs her, silently, to open them.

(He knows she cannot—his time, _their time—_ has come and gone, and it belongs to the Others now.)

 _He only wishes he could have gotten more out of it._

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	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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"Hey! What're you doing?"

She jolts badly, her breath stuck in her throat, eyes wide and her hands go to clutch at her chest.

"Sage above, don't scare me—" Her words fade away at the curious speckled blue eyes that blink nonchalantly in front of her.

The boy smiles.

Sakura's stomach feels like lead and butterflies.

Her hands begin to shake.

"Why're you staring at me lady?" Ashura's child asks, cocking his head. Blonde hair fell into his blue, blue eyes. "Do I have something on my face?"

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	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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Looking at him is a little bit like dying, Sakura decides.

"No." She croaks out. "No you're—you're fine."

Ashura's child frowns a little, his eyes still burning like _his_ all those millennia ago. "Okay...you were just staring off into space, dattebayo. Kinda like those creepy old guys that think of weird things."

She laughs, a wet, sniffling sort of laugh that makes the lump in her throat grow until she can't swallow it down anymore.

Ashura's child panics then, his eyes going wide as the tears spill down her cheeks and a sob keens out of her throat. "Hey, hey, hey! I didn't—I didn't mean to— _please stop crying_!"

He flutters about her, hands barely brushing her shoulders and she cries harder, her breaths quickening with her tears. She's shaking and sobbing and everything feels like it's being torn apart because—

 _Because—_

Those blue eyes are Ashura's.

 _Exactly_ like Ashura's.

She supposes that this is the reason they named her _Sakura_ again.

The time has come.

For what...she does not know.

She can only look at the boy—the perfect, angel-haired boy with the wide, sparkling blue eyes—and hope she doesn't die on _their_ blade once more.

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	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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Naruto was freaking out.

He'd never made a girl cry before. He'd never made _anyone_ cry before.

She was so pretty.

That was the first thing he noticed about her.

She looked lost.

That was the second thing he noticed about her.

Her eyes were half-open and glazed over. Her mouth hung open as if ready to spill the secrets that were hiding behind her green orbs and he had felt—

 _He had felt the tug._

Naruto didn't quite understand it. What made him go over there. It was...like something familiar and whispering. The smell of ramen. The sound of the rain on the roof tiles. The way his jacket fit neatly over his shoulder blades, settling in all the right places.

 _She_ was _home._

He _needed_ to get to her.

Her eyes had seared into him when they settled on him. He had felt _something_ click then. A neat _snick_ , a shutting of a door, the opening of another. Her eyes had burned into him like fire and he wanted to fall into her embrace and breathe her in, tuck her close and never let go.

The girl's tears were like a cauldron of ice-cold water being thrown over him and he rushed, the panic in his chest uncontrollable, trying to calm her down.

"I didn't mean to upset you!" He says, nearly in tears himself, his hands shaking as he soothes her tears off her cheeks. He breathes a shaky sigh of relief when she stills, scorching green eyes settling on him again.

There was something ancient in those eyes. Like she had seen far too much, far too quickly. All too similar to _Jiji_ and he wondered for a moment—just for an inkling of a second—if maybe, this girl, this _girl_ was—

"I'm okay now." She whispers. Her voice is raspy and low and it sounds so much like warmth, he nearly tears up again. "You don't have to worry about me."

"But—But—" And he can't explain it but, "Of course I do!"

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	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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The boy walks her home, despite her telling him he shouldn't.

He flits around her, like a tiny, scared little bird, ready to bolt if she snarls at him and she relents, her shoulders relaxing against the strain of her feelings, her eyes glazing over again as she remembers a different boy—man—who did the same.

They are so similar it _aches_.

Ashura's child blathers on and on about his day. Ramen is a popular theme. He invites her to have some. She respectfully declines, ignoring the pained light in his eyes. She can't— _she can't—_ be around him. Not when Ashura is—not with—she just—

She just can't.

Sakura sees her mother's relieved face in the window and then sees how it stills, hardening at the sight of the boy next to her.

She frowns.

"—Anyways, so that's how Jiji told me about—"

"This is where I live." She tells Ashura's child softly.

 _His_ blue eyes lock onto hers. She tries not to look away.

She fails, lips trembling a little as she stares into the ground.

"Oh...Okay!" Ashura's child smiles and she can see him trying to cover the pain that blooms in his eyes.

 _He's not him. He's not Ashura._

And then, because she can't help herself, because she is _weak_ when it comes to them, she steps forward a little, laying a hand on his cheek. Blue eyes blink in shock, hesitantly leaning into her touch.

He's so very warm.

"Thank you." Sakura whispers.

She turns away and doesn't look back once.

 _He is not Ashura._

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	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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She's angry when she shuts the door behind her. She doesn't slam it, can't slam it, because _what use would it be?_

She with the green eyes and Ashura's child walking on the same streets. She with the bond that hums in her stomach and keeps her up late at night, remembering, yearning, _wanting_ —

She's angry.

She's _furious._

"Why?" She hisses, tears in her eyes. The ceiling doesn't move. There is the same crack in the left corner as always. The pink bed looks dull against the plaster.

" _Why_?" She screams. She's shaking now, curling in on herself, and she remembers how his eyes followed hers, _little Ashura's boy._

He wasn't _hers._

But she was his.

"...Enough, _please._ I can't—I can't do this—" She sobs then, and she remembers his warm skin on her shoulders, calming her with a single touch. "This is too painful. I can't _see_ them again. They...they're going to break me...they're going to _break me."_

Hagoromo doesn't answer and Sakura wonders if he ever will.

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